View Research: Light issues

Light issues

We have learned many new things about lights on cage traps during the 2005 wet season. The core issue is to manage the insects that come to the trap and to try to keep them inside the trap. During the wet season we noticed that the ball of insects attracted to the trap is often larger than the trap. This meant that the toads did not have to go into the trap to get a feed.
 
Lower powered lights and covering parts of the traps with shade cloth or plastic were a help. Also the bigger the trap the less likely it is to have aproblem. Our Supertrap caught 50% more toads than the smaller field trap because of this.
 
We have also found UV lights more effective than normal white lights although they all catch toads.

Author: Graeme Sawyer 23-May-2005
Last Updated: 14-Dec-2005
Category: Cane Toad » Lights for cage traps

Responses

  • As insect numbers reduce during the dry season we have seen the Black Light UV lights catch more toads than the standard white light flourescent lights.
     
    In a trial during April/ May the black light UV lights caught 50% more toads than a white light trap placed 6 metres away.
    Submitted by Graeme Sawyer on 02-Aug-2005
  • The blacklight UV lights we have trialed have caught about 50% more toads than the white light flouresecnt lights. The specific Blacklight Blue or Blacklight Diisco type lights have worked very well also.
     
    We think this will be a big boost, especially around towns where there are other lights around. We have also used quite low powered light 4watts with good results. For this reason we are suggesting the UV lights from Digitech as the best "off the shelf" solution we have found so far.
    Submitted by Graeme Sawyer on 14-Dec-2005
  • Available form Jaycar and JR Lighting and probably other outlets these light are often referred to as hoon lights as they are used under cars to make the car glow. Make sure you read the label carefully as some brands cannot be left on for more than 3 hours at a time. They look like they will do the trick nicely on the traps and they have a very low power draw which means they are able to be powered from a 10w solar panel or a plug in adapter which will convert 240 volts to 12 volts DC. You can also see the light on the jaycar website Cat number ST3147 and SL2894.
    Submitted by Graeme Sawyer on 14-Dec-2005